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Most Washingtonians know Aberdeen as the hometown of Kurt Cobain. The Kurt Cobain Memorial Park is a major draw, and a sign welcomes people to town with the famous phrase “Come as you are.”
But at the turn of the last century, Aberdeen was known for other things: Gambling, prostitution, and murder. In fact, it was so dangerous that it was nicknamed “The hellhole of the Pacific” around the year 1900.
But while many of the early logging towns had similar forms of unsavory entertainment, Aberdeen had something they didn't: An incredibly high murder rate.
In 1910, a grisly discovery was made: the majority of the murders and disappearances could be traced back to one man, Billy Gohl.
Billy was a bartender who would befriend the drunken sailors only to rob them, shoot them, and dump their bodies in the Wishkah River. He was convicted of two counts of murder, but he is thought to have killed up to 140 people. Today, Aberdeen's Billy's Bar and Grill pays homage to Gohl, who is said to haunt the establishment himself.